Can't save everyone
by HufflepuffKat
Summary: There are some people that even Superman cannot save. How does Clark react and feel about his dying friend. Jacklyn Jennings has had leukaemia since she was 13 years old, and her latest visit to the doctors tell her she may only have 6 months left to live. Only cannon pairings.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

 **NOTE: I was unsure about how old the characters are, so I am assuming Clarke and Lois are the same age alongside my OC at age 20. I did check the wiki, it did not help.**

It was a busy day at the Daily Planet, as usual. A constant stream of people flowed throughout the office, filling it with the sounds of chatter. Phones rang, printers printed, and occasionally jammed causing a very rushed worker to shout in annoyance.

The new photographer stood awkwardly at the door waiting for someone to show her to her new desk. At first glance she looked rather ghastly, she was a pale, bony figure with long, thin platinum hair. She looked like a ghost. Almost sickly.

Eventually the other photographer in the room took notice of the figure in the doorway, and went to introduce his new colleague to the office.

"Hello, I'm Henry Olsen, call me 'Jimmy'. You must be our new photographer, Jacklyn Jennings." 'Jimmy' introduced himself. Jacklyn gave him a bored nod, making him feel awkward after his friendly introduction.

Jimmy led her to her new desk, it looked bare, only having a simple computer, and no other items on the desk, Jacklyn would have to bring her own stationary in tomorrow.

Jimmy began to explain the basics of the office. "This is your desk, your computer already has all the best photo editing software, so you don't need to worry about that. You are only the Jnr. Photographer, me being the Snr, but you may be asked to take photos for our head journalists, this is Lois Lane…"

Jimmy gestured to a woman with brown hair tied up into a pony tail. Lois briefly looked up from her computer and gave Jacklyn a quick nod in acknowledgement before going back to typing on her computer.

"… And this is Clark Kent."

Jacklyn suddenly came to attention at hearing that slightly familiar name, it couldn't be, she hadn't seen Clark in years. Clark looked up and stared at her and stared at Jacklyn eyes squinting.

"… Jacklyn?" He asked for confirmation, recognising her. Jacklyn hesitantly nodded. Jimmy blinked.

"Do you two know each other?" Jacklyn gave a distracted nod.

Clark and Jacklyn were friends during their middle school years. Well… Friends wasn't quite the right word. Their parents were good friends, and would often visit each other and have coffee, leaving them to hang out with each other. As a child Jacklyn was never aloud out much and didn't have any friends at school, so she had been rather shy, but Clark had been friendly and Jacklyn had grown rather fond of Clark. However during their high school years, after she was diagnosed, her parents had spent most of their little free time searching for solutions and had drifted apart from Clark's.

When Jacklyn was 13, she was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia, and during the last seven years she had been going through a series of chemotherapies and other treatments in hopes of a cure, however everything up to date had failed. Leading to her last unfortunate visit to her doctor.

Most people with this form of leukaemia are only expected to live little more than five years, and Jacklyn had been very fortunate up until now, however, her time was running out, and her doctors had estimated that if her next, and final attempt at Chemo failed, that she only had six months to live.

Jacklyn was unsure how to feel about this news. For seven years she had played toe-to-toe with death with her Leukaemia, however, nothing so far had seemed so certain, or so final.

Jacklyn felt weak for being so scared, unlike so many others, who were surely braver than her, had less time to come to terms with their upcoming deaths, yet she had seven years of illness to come to terms with her lack of time yet she felt so… scared, so helpless. She wanted to cry and have someone pat her back and tell her everything would be OK, but, she couldn't.

Her mother and father had enough on their plate, they had to come to terms that they could lose their daughter and were working hard to ensure that she could afford these treatments and have her live closer to a hospital. (As in Smallville it was a long drive to the nearest hospital from home.) It would be selfish of Jacklyn to ask them to coddle her too.

She didn't have any friends to go to, nor would she go to them either. She did not want to concern any other person with her Leukaemia. She had done enough damage. She did not need pity.

Seeing Clark in this office, who she knew would actually care about her illness if he knew, had enforced her decision and increased her motive to not let anyone find out about her illness.

Clark was looking at her strangely, Jacklyn knew this was to be expected. She had changed a lot since they last met. She had been really shy and insecure as a child, but now she did not bother too much. She figured that if she stood like the nervous wreck she had been, her illness would be more recognisable and she would only be stared at more.

"Long time no see, we should catch-up during our lunch break." Clark suddenly said.

"Maybe." Jacklyn replied, with no intension of doing so. She really didn't want to get close to people, as it would only make it harder to hide her illness from them.

She should have known that it would have been harder than that to avoid Clark and everyone else, and she would have a long and difficult time ahead of her. After all she _was_ keeping secrets in a room full of Journalists.

 **That's it for this chapter. I am not used to multi-chapter stories as I have difficulty keeping pace in a story. This is also only my second fic and I haven't watched Smallville in at least a year. I am trying to find some episode to watch to refresh my memory of the characters so I may be rewriting this chapter later to match up the speech patterns, but I won't change anything major.**

 **In this story I will be staying away from the superhero aspect of Smallville, as the purpose of this story is that not everyone can be saved by superpowers.**

 **Also, I promise that I will have my character in a romantic pairing with Clark, as I personally know how OC pairings can be annoying. However I am still debating whether she gets a crush on him or not.**

 **So can I have a vote on if she gets a gets a crush on Clark or not. There will NEVER be a (Jacklyn X Clark) relationship as that would mess up the plot I have in mind.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

 **Thankyou** ** _jayley_** **for your review, I will take your opinion into consideration, however I may still go through with it to fill in the plot.**

The office began to clear out and become eerily-quiet. Only a few lights were still on at a few desks, as some people were behind schedule and needed to catch-up for close deadline. Jacklyn saved of her work on her photos taken for a minor article in the daily planet and packed up her notes and SDs. She glanced over to Clark, who she noticed was also packing up his things. He glanced over to her and gave her a slight smile, however there was disappointment and annoyance in deep his eyes.

Jacklyn felt a tug of guilt in her gut. Through-out the week, Clark and a few of her others had asked if she'd like to join them in her lunch break, even Lois had asked once, but each time she had brushed them of and gave them a half-hearted excuse. She didn't like lying, really she didn't, but she really didn't want to socialise, and she felt that they wouldn't take that as a real excuse without being insulted. She wanted to distance herself, but she didn't want to hurt other people's feels in the process.

Unfortunately, Clark finished packing up before she did, as he only needed to put his pen and notes away, and she also needed pack her SDs properly. He reluctantly walks up to her, preparing himself to be brushed off again. She starts to feel a tug of guilt again.

"Jacklyn, would you like to hang out this afternoon, it's the end of your first week of working at the Daily planet?" Clark was clearly a little concerned for Jacklyn, her excuses so far were easily seen through, and he must have thought she was too shy to try and talk with everyone else.

"Um, no, sorry, I have already got plans tonight. I promised some friends of mine that we would watch movies together." Jacklyn replied uncomfortably. This time, she did actually have plans, however, instead of hanging out with friends, she had a meeting with her doctor to discuss her Chemo treatment in two weeks.

The idea of her upcoming Chemo treatment caused an icy shard of anxiety to stab her in the chest. She was worried about the Chemo in more ways than one. This was their last attempt, and if it failed she had no more hope. Hope was the last thing she had left, and it was dripping out of her hands like water. This fear was like a cold stone stuck in her throat, choking her, but this fear could be dismissed easily with denial, after all, it had every chance of succeeding.

However the fear she couldn't dismiss wasn't as bad, but undeniable and would certainly cause trouble. Each time she did Chemo her hair would fall out, and each time it would attract questioning stares, and would cause her great embarrassment. She remembered the swirling feeling in her stomach it caused every time she went into a crowded area, followed by the feeling that they _knew_ that she was sick and judging her. She hated it.

Also this would be a problem if she wished hide her illness from her co-workers as she intended. If she felt embarrassed by nameless faces, she would surely feel worse if they were people she had to deal with every day.

"I'm glad to hear that you've made friends, I remember you were so shy during middle school. How did you meet them?" Clark said with a smile.

Damn... "They live in the apartment next to mine." She said unconvincingly. Clark gave her that strange look again, and she felt the tug of guilt in her stomach increase. She couldn't meet his gaze. She said a quick farewell and left.

Dr Stewart was a well-mannered man, he was overly kind to his patients, which made Jacklyn feel nervous that he was trying to soften the blow of some bad news or showing her pity. He talked to her like she was delicate, much to her annoyance, from listening to him you'd guess that he was talking to a child.

"Well everything has been set up for you miss Jennings, you have nothing to worry about. The bill for your Chemotherapy has been sent to your parents as usual. I'm sure everything will work out." He said with a kind voice, laced with pity. He watched Jacklyn closely with concerned eyes.

Jacklyn bit her lip with guilt. She felt like such a burden. Her parents were getting old and they were each working two jobs to keep up with her medical bills, as they had been doing so for the last seven years, they didn't deserve this.

Dr Stewart gave her a slight smile knowing what was on her mind. "Have you considered registering to be sponsored by a charity? There are charities that assist with medical bills like yours?"

The idea made her feel sick. There were families with more difficult financial situations than hers that had no chance of affording similar bills, charities were designed for cases like theirs. Asking to be sponsored while still being able to pay, even uncomfortably did not sit well with her.

"But we can afford the bills, it's just hard."

"You mustn't feel bad, my niece in Australia is sponsored by some organisation called _'World's greatest shave'_ and my brothers in alright situation. It just helps her and my brother pay for her therapy and live close to the hospital." He says with a half-hearted smile.

Jacklyn had heard of Dr Stewart's niece before, she was diagnosed two years ago and is currently nine. Cases like hers made her feel bad for feeling bad about her life, because she has been much more fortunate than them. She always felt a weight of depression when she heard about Dr Stewart's niece.

Jacklyn tried to change the subject and get rid of the dark mood.

 _"_ ' _World's greatest shave'_ what's that one about?" The name did make it sound like it had some story to it after all.

"It's this fund raiser where people get sponsors to shave their head and give the money to charity." Dr Stewart said with a smile.

Shave their head, she decided to take this into consideration, it may solve a few of her problems.

 **That's all for this chapter. Can you guess what is going to happen? Can she go through Chemo without raising suspicion? Comment your theories!**


End file.
